Gay Republic Daily
Open Forum - Rochester Gay bashing investigation
Feral - Jun 08, 2007 - 02:04 AM
Post subject: Rochester Gay bashing investigation
Gay bashing investigation
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An aggressive response from city hall tonight over claims that Rochester cops ignored an alleged case of gay-bashing. One city councilman is speaking out. An internal investigation within the Rochester police department is now moving forward. It's an investigation that Councilman Bill Pritchard says he will follow every step of the way.
Rochester police have started to interview the victims of an alleged gay bashing. They already told their story to us including some who did not want their faces shown. The alleged victims say city police did nothing after they were brutally beaten by a group that used anti-gay slurs.
"When something like this does happen it causes everybody and certainly it caused me to pause and certainly register a certain amount of shock,” said Councilman Bill Pritchard.
Pritchard is following the case closely. According to the alleged victims, they were on Goodman Street early Friday morning when the attack took place. They called police, but they say instead of arresting their attackers, cops took three of them into custody. One says an officer slashed his toe with a knife, another says an officer referred to her as a 'drunken dyke.'
Feral - Jun 26, 2007 - 07:35 PM
Post subject: RE: Rochester Gay bashing investigation
Oh, you saw this coming, right?
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The lawsuit claims "that responding officers showed 'deliberate indifference' and mocked them with gay slurs," according to the Democrat & Chronicle:
"The lawsuit — filed by Dave Greenlaw, Josh Lieberman, Megan Barrett and Christine Herrick — states that law enforcement 'treated the plaintiff's complaints of harassment differently from other types of harassment for an extended period of time, thus failing to protect the plaintiffs.' At one point, Greenlaw called 911, complaining that police weren't doing anything. A sheriff's deputy responded, according to the lawsuit but, once told of the situation, said nothing could be done and left.
Kyleovision - Jun 27, 2007 - 03:52 PM
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The alleged victims say city police did nothing after they were brutally beaten by a group that used anti-gay slurs.
[...]
According to the alleged victims, they were on Goodman Street....
Okay, first of all, there has never, ever been a case in American jurisprudence wherein the judicious use of the word 'alleged' has saved a news outlet from being successfully sued, when that word has been used prophylactically in a controversial context. Just calling them 'the victims' does not offer credence to their claims. "According to reports...," "police say...," etc. do everything that these morons think that the magic word 'alleged' does, in terms of not taking sides in the controversy.
When I ran a newsroom, the word 'alleged' was banned.
Beyond that lazy bit of journalistic idiocy, let's recall the Kobe Bryant rape case for a moment. That turned into a he-said/she-said very quickly, but I do not recall any legit news outlet that ran for the hills (and to the use of the word 'alleged') when referring to his accuser right off the bat. ('The accusers say...' is yet another neutral construction that was not used, BTW.)
So we see that here-- by their use of language-- WROC *has* taken sides... and already. From the absolute outset, they're prepared to cast doubt on whether this thing actually happened.
And I mean, who can blame them? I know that whenever *I* fabricate a police-abuse story, the very first thing I think of to accuse officers of doing is slashing my toe with a knife. Just follows, don't it? Cops go to abuse gays, and *some* poor, dumb, fag bastard gets his toe slashed. Happens every time, right? We hear it daily, eh?
Wonder why WROC is treating this differently than any other police-abuse story? Say, two black teens who end up with broken noses after a sojourn in the darkened backseat of of a squad car? Why so different? Hmmm... wow, drawing a blank. Anybody? Anybody?
Feral - Jun 27, 2007 - 07:17 PM
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Wonder why WROC is treating this differently than any other police-abuse story? Say, two black teens who end up with broken noses after a sojourn in the darkened backseat of of a squad car? Why so different? Hmmm... wow, drawing a blank. Anybody? Anybody?
I'd kind of have to see a sample of the station's coverage of the sorts of stories you mention before I can hazard a guess as to why there would be a difference (if a difference there is).
That they are prejudiced bigots and have decided in their own minds that this incident happened in a much different way than the 'mos say it did is, of course, one possibility.
Another possibility is that they just aren't all that good. We are, after all, talking about a DMA that is 57th. I know what sort of writing can be purchased by markets in the 60s and I know what sort of writing can be purchased by markets in the 40s. I also have an idea of what sort of grasp producers, reporters, and (the horror) re-writing anchors have of the stories they report in these market sizes. Seeing as how this market is conveniently bracketed by the two DMAs I'm familiar with, I see no reason to go galloping to the conclusion that the story means to say what it says.
The reason why the 50s and 60s do not enjoy the caliber of writing the 10s and 20s do is that the skilled writers have (quite sensibly) taken jobs in the larger, wealthier markets.
Kyleovision - Jun 27, 2007 - 10:38 PM
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I see no reason to go galloping to the conclusion that the story means to say what it says.
Ah, but there be the rub. It says what it says. That it perhaps inadvertently says what it says does not obviate the fact that it likewise means what it means, implies what it implies, and slags those whom it slags.
Feral - Jun 28, 2007 - 04:23 AM
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That it does.
berto - Sep 15, 2007 - 01:49 PM
Post subject: NY police face discipline in gay-bashing
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Police and a civilian review board in Rochester. N.Y., on Thursday upheld formal allegations of misconduct by eight people who say they were gay-bashed in June both by an unruly group and the police officers who responded, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reported.
The residents, who have sued the city over the June 1 incident, say they were attacked with fists, kicks, slurs and a metal rod because some members of their party were gay. They said that when they called police, the officers arrested three of the victims but let the instigators go, and that at least two officers called them "drunken dyke" and other slurs.
"I'm here to say that we made some mistakes," Rochester Police Chief David Moore told WHAM-TV.
After the bashed residents hired a lawyer in mid-June, the police started looking for the four civilians -- two male, two female -- they had released. The suspects have since been identified but not arrested, WHAM said.
*click*
Feral - Sep 15, 2007 - 05:18 PM
Post subject: RE: NY police face discipline in gay-bashing
While the suspects have not been arrested, they are not yet out of the picture:
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The allegations against the four civilian suspects will go to the Monroe County grand jury for possible indictment, the station said.